Chivarlous Saints: St. Louis Ix

St. Louis IX Of France (1214-1270)

Married Saints, Pages 110-128: “If It be true—as the modern saying goes—that it is not how long we live, but how much, that matters, then Louis IX of France was a master in the art of living. He was the typical king of the greatest century of the Middle Ages, a peacemaker among the nations, a crusader to the Holy Land, idolized by the French people, respected by the Saracens. He established justice, peace and prosperity in France, and raised her to a place of preeminence in Christendom. In his private life he was happily married and the father of eleven children ; he was feared by the nobles and loved by the poor ; he practiced his religion humbly and by his invincible faith and unceasing prayer maintained an unbroken contact with God and the powers of the supernatural world. He wore his earthly crown without reproach, and thereby gained a heavenly crown whose glory will never fade.” “The first fact in the life of Saint Louis of France that rivets our attention is that he had a holy and capable mother, Blanche of Castile. She combined a genius for statesmanship with the best qualities of motherhood. Louis was her oldest son, and through the untimely death of his father, Louis VIII, be-came heir-presumptive to the throne when a boy of twelve. Blanche ruled the kingdom as regent with wisdom and vigor until he could be crowned as Louis IX. She repeatedly frustrated the plots of the feudal aristocracy against her son ; and went to war against the nobles when it was necessary in order to preserve the unity of the kingdom. She was more than a match for them and finally succeeded in making them respect the authority of the crown.” “Blanche took Louis with her on her military campaigns, and had him sit beside her in the councils of state. This gave him training in the art of ruling, for he learned not only

through precept, but through ocular demonstration. Blanche was not con-tent to train her son to be a king ; she schooled him also in the ways of sanctity. She taught him the elements of Catholic faith and devotion, and drilled him in habits of prayer which he never abandoned.” “From his earliest years she strove to impress upon his sensitive mind the value of holiness. She often – said to him "I would rather see you dead than know that you should live to commit a mortal sin." When Louis was nineteen years of age, his mother decided that it was time for him to marry. She chose for him a child of twelve, the Princess Marguerite, the eldest daughter of Raymond Bérenger, Count of Provence. Perhaps she did not realize how beautiful the young princess was ; later she apparently became jealous of her son's devotion to his wife. Perhaps Louis was surprised to find that his mother had chosen so pretty and graceful a girl to be his wife, but there is no evidence that he was displeased. Marguerite bore her husband eleven children.” “Saint Francis de Sales, in the chapter on "Counsels for Married Persons," in his Introduction to the Devout Life, appeals to the example of this French royal saint as an illustration of the proper use to be made of mutual caresses in married life : "The great St. Louis, who was as rigorous towards his own flesh as he was tender in his love of his wife, was almost blamed for being lavish in such caresses, although in truth he rather deserved praise for knowing how to lay aside his martial and courageous spirit, and give these little demonstrations of affection ; for although these little demonstrations of pure and frank affection do not bind hearts together, yet they bring them close together, and serve as a pleasant aid to mutual intercourse." “Throughout their married life, Louis never entered upon any serious undertaking without first gaining the permission of his wife. Father R. P. Surin, of the Society of Jesus, writing in 1652, praises this habit of the French king as exemplifying the quality of wisdom in conjugal love : "It is re-ported of St. Louis that he never disposed of his person without taking the advice of Madame Marguerite of Provence, his wife ; and that when in captivity in the Holy Land, when he was treating of his ransom, before giving his final word, he demanded the privilege of speaking to the queen, who had accompanied him in the voyage to the Levant. Upon the infidels expressing their surprise, he replied that he could conclude nothing without her, because she was his Lady, and as such he owed her this respect. To act and speak in that way proved the wise love of the holy king for the queen his wife." Once, however, Queen Marguerite refused the consent for which the king had asked. When their eldest son had reached the age when he might succeed to the throne, Louis told the queen secretly of his own desire to renounce the throne and become a religious, and asked her to acquiesce in his pious intention. She shook her head and stamped her foot, and quickly put forward convincing arguments why he should remain king as long as he lived. He al-lowed himself to be persuaded, and never again brought up the subject.” “The persistent jealousy which Blanche of Castile displayed towards the queen on many occasions proves that she was not a saint—as yet. Joinville, in his Memoirs, bears witness to this jealousy : "The harshness which Queen Blanche showed to Queen Marguerite was such that Queen Blanche would not allow her son to remain in his wife's company, if she could prevent it, except in the evening when he retired with her." “It is possible that Queen Blanche had a theory that a husband and wife might see too much of each other. However, King Louis and his wife so arranged matters that they could see each other when they wished on a winding staircase which connected their two rooms, by instructing their attendants to give them a signal when the queen mother came to either room, so that she always found either the king or the queen alone. Joinville records that "once the king was with his wife, and she was in danger of death, being ill after the birth of a child. The Queen Blanche came there, took her son by the hand and said, 'Come away, you have no

business here.' When Queen Marguerite saw that the mother was leading the king away, she cried out : `Alas ! You will not let me see my lord either in life or death'; and then she swooned, and they thought she was dead. The king, who thought she was dying, returned, and it was with great trouble that she was brought to herself again." “The Sire de Joinville may not have been an entirely trustworthy authority on the relative merits of these two ladies. He was obviously a devoted partisan of Queen Marguerite ; he also sympathized with the feudal aristocratic party which Queen Blanche had fought and outwitted, and thus was prejudiced against her. Marguerite intimated once or twice to Joinville that just because she was the wife of a saint she must not be considered, from a worldly standpoint, to be necessarily the happiest of women. Indeed she was not called upon to bear testimony to his sanctity in the process of canonization. Thirty-eight witnesses were called, but not the queen.” “She often said of the king, IL est si divers—which translated into our language would probably be, "He is so strange ! " For instance, when they were returning from Palestine, and the royal ship was in danger of being shipwrecked in a storm near the coasts of Cyprus, Joinville urged her to make a vow of a pilgrimage if they arrived safely in France.” “She replied, "Sire, I would gladly make this vow ; but if the king learned that I had made it without consulting him, he would never permit me to fulfill the pilgrimage. The king is so strange !"From the wifely point of view, the king was undoubtedly difficult to manage. The queen once expressed to him her vexation at his simple way of dressing and his lack of royal dignity. ” "Madame," he asked, "would you be pleased if I covered myself with costly garments ?" "I certainly would," she replied, "and I want you to do so." "Well, I agree," said the king, "and am ready to please you, for the law of marriage requires that the husband should seek to please his wife. Only this obligation is reciprocal ; you will, therefore, be obliged to conform to my wish." "And what is that wish?" she demanded. "It is that you should wear the most humble costume ; you will take mine, and I yours." The queen would not consent to make the ex-change, so she curtsied and left the room. “Louis IX of France is one of the most attractive saints just because he was a king. He used to the full the grace which God gave him, and thus made his royal dignity the instrument for the development of sanctity. There is no position in life, however exalted, that may not be so used. As Bourdaloue said in his sermon on the Feast of Saint Louis, "It is a sentiment very injurious to Providence to sup-pose that there are in the world any conditions absolutely opposed to saintliness ; or that saintliness is in itself incompatible with certain conditions and states of which it is nevertheless admitted that God is the author." “Saint Louis manifested a fervent zeal for God, joined with a profound humility. He exemplified M. Henri Joly's definition of a saint as "the man who serves God heroically and out of love." He rose at midnight and summoned his clerks and chaplains to chant the Matins of the day and those of Our Lady. After a short interval, barely long enough to fall asleep, they were called to chant Prime. He heard each day a Mass for the dead, in addition to the Mass for the day, which was always sung. During Lent he heard three Masses a day, the last of which was said towards noon. When traveling on horseback, he caused his chaplains to sing as they rode the hours of Terce, Sext and None.” “The carrying of the Cross into the Holy Land was impressed as an inescapable duty upon the mind of Saint Louis, when he was miraculously restored to health from a severe illness that followed his exhausting campaign in Guyenne in 1244. The whole nation was alarmed and rallied to the help of the sick king by prayers, alms and solemn pro-cessions. His mother prayed night and day with fastings and other austerities. She ordered the relics of the

true Cross, the Crown of Thorns, and the Sacred Lance to be brought to the sick chamber that the king might touch them.” “Finally the king awoke, as if from the sleep of death, and said feebly, "The grace of God has visited me from on high, and has recalled me from the dead." When he had completely regained his senses, he sent for the Bishop of Paris. Upon his arrival with the Bishop of Meaux, the king astonished all by saying, "My Lord Bishop, I beg you to place the cross of foreign pilgrimage upon my shoulder." The two bishops and both queens pleaded with him to wait until he had fully recovered his normal strength ; but he protested that he would take no food until he had received the cross. The bishop regretfully complied with his request.” “Ever since Pope Urban II had in 1095 made the Crusade a work of piety, devout kings and princes had looked upon it, not as a war of aggression against the infidels, but as continuing the necessary defense of Europe and Christian civilization against pagan barbarism and the Moslem invasions. It was but carrying on the work begun with such energy by Charles Martel and Charlemagne. Saint Louis had seen the Tartar hordes, which had ravaged Poland, Silesia, Southern Russia, Moldavia and Hungary with fire and sword, appearing in 1240 on the frontiers of Germany. He hoped that an expedition into the Holy Land and the founding of a Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, might keep the Saracens from following in the wake of the barbarian invaders of Europe from the north and east. To wrest the Holy Land from the Turks did not seem to Saint Louis the fantastic adventure that it seems to many today.” “Brother Salimbene, an Italian religious who was present at the provincial chapter of the minor friars at Sens, when the French king stopped on his way to the Crusade to ask for their prayers, has thus described Saint Louis as he appeared at that time: "The king was weak, slight and thin, of a fair height, with an angelic air, and a countenance full of grace. He came to the church of the minor friars, not with royal pomp, but in a pilgrim's habit, bearing on his neck his wallet and bread-bag, which marvelously adorned his royal shoulders." “Judged from a human standpoint, this Crusade of Saint Louis was a failure, not because he did not make adequate military preparations, but because a lack of coordination in the crusading forces of the various leaders resulted in disastrous delays in the invasion of Egypt. This gave the Saracens time to recover from their panic. Better, however, than any military success was the heroic refusal of the French king to save himself from capture by boarding his ship and thus deserting the main body of his soldiers who had already landed. They were all taken prisoners by the Saracens, and Saint Louis spent the next four years in captivity in the Holy Land. He finally paid a generous ransom, without haggling, for the release of himself and his army. Through-out the four years he did not cease to labor for the conversion of the Turks.” “Saint Louis, as we have seen, loved his wife with a true and pure affection ; he also took pains that his children should receive the best possible education. He often instructed them himself, and personally selected their teachers and masters.” “According to Joinville, "Before he lay down in his bed, he made his children come round him and told them the deeds of good kings and emperors, and that they should take example by such good men. And he also told them the deeds of bad princes who, by their luxury, rapine and avarice, had lost their kingdoms. 'And I remind you of these things,' said he, 'that you may avoid them, so that God be not wroth against you.' He made them learn the hours of our Lady, and made them say the daily hours before him, to accustom them to hear the hours when they should govern their lands." “According to worldly standards, the children turned out creditably to their parents, though four of them died in youth. The eldest son, Louis, was a boy of high promise and

probably the favorite of his father ; but he died in his sixteenth year, while the king was lying seriously ill at Fontainebleau.” “Thinking his own death was near, the father wrote this last message to his son : "Fair son, I pray you to make the people of your kingdom love you; for truly, I would rather a Scotchman came from Scot-land to govern the people of the kingdom well and loyally than that you should govern them badly in the sight of all." The succession passed to Prince Philip, who became known as Philip the Bold.” “Saint Louis ministered to countless numbers of the sick and needy, and with his own hands buried the bodies of many of his soldiers who died on the Crusade. At the royal table he fed numerous poor people daily with his own hands ; on Maundy Thursday he washed the feet of the poor and the lepers.” “To love God and one's neighbor does not make one a saint, unless one also practices self-discipline. Probably the kinds of mortification practiced by Saint Louis would not be widely popular today. He afflicted his body with a hair-shirt and frequent fasting ; he used the discipline and slept under sackcloth on ashes. His confessor finally made him give up the use of the hair-shirt, and forbade him to practice such extreme fasting as would unfit him for his royal duties. No doubt he found other more secret means of mortification. An intense personal love for their Saviour has ever made the saints eager to suffer for and along with Christ. As Saint Paul said, "If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him." “Not only does Louis IX of France occupy a high place among the saints because he was. a king; but he was one of the most loved of the kings of the Middle Ages because he was a saint. The fundamental principles of his royal policy were justice to all classes and peace with all nations. When war became necessary as a defense against in-justice, he took every precaution that it should not result in oppression of the poor. He worked incessantly to prevent private feuds among his nobles, because they interfered with the tilling of the soil. “His great love for the poor shines out in this passage from the Instructions to his son, the future Philip the Bold : "If it become needful for you to make war, be very careful that the poor people who had no part in the injustice that led to it should be preserved from all hurt, either by fire or otherwise, for it is better that you should constrain the evil-doer by seizing his goods, his towns and castles, than that you should ravage the goods of the poor." “Saint Louis not only befriended the poor, but he tried to do justice to all classes without respect of per-sons. He was lavish in his almsgiving, and established numerous charitable foundations and hospitals ; he also defended the acquired rights of the new bourgeoisie of the communes and cities. There was sound wisdom in this policy, for it assured him of friends who would stand by him when he had to punish the injustices of his peers and barons.” “So far as lay in his power, he would permit no injustice to be done, even by members of his own family. His brother, the powerful Charles of Anjou, once caused a knight to be thrown into prison because he had appealed to the king against what he considered an unjust sentence in one of Charles' courts. The king summoned his brother by royal letters, and when Charles appeared the king blamed him much for having seized the knight who had appealed. He said that there could be only one king in France, and that he must not think that because he was the king's brother, any violation of justice could be sanctioned.” “On one occasion, an unfaithful wife had procured the death of her husband and pleaded deep repentance. As she belonged to one of the noble families of Pontoise, Queen Marguerite, the Countess of Pontoise and other great ladies, besought the king to remit the sentence of death. The king refused. Thereupon some of the preaching friars interceded for the guilty woman, and urged that at least the execution should not take place at Pontoise. The king consulted a wise nobleman, Simon of Nesle, and he replied that justice ought to be done

publicly in the place where the crime had been committed. Accordingly the king ordered the woman to be burned publicly at Pontoise, and in spite of all appeals his orders were carried out.” “In accordance with the commonly accepted principles of his time, he considered heresy to be subversive of the faith and morality of his people, and that it tended to undermine the civil order. It is especially the Albigensian heresy with which he had to deal. He counseled his son, "Do what you can to expel heretics from the land, as well as other evil people, so that it may be thoroughly purged; do whatever you are able in this matter by the good counsel of wise and discreet men." Modern liberals and radicals, who would be the first to denounce such a policy, are strangely silent about the suppression of Christian teachers in Soviet Russia, Mexico and elsewhere. Apparently it makes a difference which kind of teachings are being suppressed.” “The king's foreign policy was animated entirely by the desire to establish peace and justice. In his Instructions to Philip he wrote : "Dear son, I enjoin you to refrain as far as possible from war with any other Christian power. And if you are wronged by anyone, try in many ways to find some means of asserting your rights without being obliged to go to war."His vigorous campaign against the English in Poitou convinced the English king, Henry III, that Louis could defend his country's rights. However, in the Treaty of Paris (I258), which terminated the hostilities with the English, Louis made concessions to the English which his council opposed as giving them more than they deserved. His defense was, "As for the land which I give up, I do not give it to the English king and his heirs because I am bound to do so, but that there may be love between my children and his, who are cousins. And it seems to me that I do well to make this gift, since he was not before this my vassal, and must now do homage to me." “He also concluded a treaty of peace with Spain in I258, and his intervention effected a reconciliation between the Emperor Frederick II and the Holy See. His love of peace was manifested not only in words, but in deeds.” “There were not lacking critics who accused Louis of going too far in the direction of piety and asceticism, and intimated that his religious zeal unfitted him to be ruler of the kingdom. A woman named Salette was pleading one day in the king's court against a knight, John of Fouilleuse.” “As the king came out of his chamber, this woman shouted up at him from the foot of the stairs : "Fie, fie ! You ought not to be king of France. It would be much better to have another king, for you are ever busied with minor friars, preaching friars, priests and clerks : it is a great pity that you are king of France, and it is a great marvel that you have not been put out of the kingdom." “The king's sergeants were for beating the woman and chasing her out of the court, but the king forbade them, and smiling, replied to the woman's taunt : "Certainly you speak the truth, I am unworthy to be king, and if it pleased our Lord, it would have been better that another should have been king who knew better how to govern the kingdom." There-upon he ordered one of his chamberlains to give the woman forty sous.” “He was content to dismiss this woman's criticism with a smile, but he undoubtedly believed that he had a right to the consolations of religion as a compensation for the heavy burdens of his office. This is evident from his reply to a similar criticism that was commonly leveled at him by worldly nobles.” “Geoffrey of Beaulieu writes : "As he had heard that some of the nobles murmured against him because he attended so many masses and sermons, he replied that if he were to employ twice as much time in dice-throwing, or in ranging through the forest to hunt animals and birds, no one would make objection."

“Charlemagne once said, "Of a king I expect wisdom ; of a scholar, learning ; and of a priest, piety." This gentle and playfully humorous king of France possessed all three—and wisdom supremely. Above all he had a childlike heart and retained it to the end. It is only his sanctity that can explain the superhuman results of his reign. He consolidated his kingdom and raised it to a place of preeminence in Europe. He made France command respect in her foreign relations. In spite of his reverses in Egypt and the Holy Land, he extended French influence in the East.” A Tartar Khan once put the question to a missionary, "Who is the greatest Western prince ?" Without hesitation the missionary replied, "The Emperor." "You are wrong," said the barbarian chief, "it is the king of France."

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